


Pillar in the Dark

by VelkynKarma



Series: Friends in Space Places [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Hunk (Voltron)-centric, Hurt/Comfort, Keith (Voltron)-centric, Major Illness, Post Season 2, Season 2 compliant, Season 2 spoilers, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-09-27 11:48:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10019435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VelkynKarma/pseuds/VelkynKarma
Summary: Hunk always gets the worst missions. But when Keith starts acting strange on their recon mission to find more allies against the Galra Empire, he starts to think maybe this is the worst one of all.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For prompt #2, Quiet! Special thanks to buttered_onions for helping me work my way to a title for this fic :)
> 
> Also, **please be advised** that this fic does use some symptoms that are analogous to symptoms caused by brain tumors/brain cancers. This can be a sensitive topic for some, so if that bothers you, I suggest you not read this fic.

“Are we sure this is the place? It looks kind of small for a planet with some kind of anti-Galra weapon,” Hunk observes.  
  
“We’re at the coordinates the Blade of Marmora estimated,” Keith says, glancing at the display on the left. “It must be.”  
  
“I was kind of expecting more,” Hunk says. “This feels sort of anti-climactic.”  
  
It does, really. The Blade of Marmora has still been working with the Voltron Alliance even after Zarkon’s fall, hoping to restore some kind of stability to the fractured Galra Empire, and currently their interests were still in alignment. With a number factions vying for top position in the newly leaderless empire, including one led by Prince Lotor, the Empire was still in disarray and highly dangerous and unstable. The Blade of Marmora seemed to think the dangerous parts had to be culled still in order to return the Galra Empire to its former strength and honor, and the paladins were all for taking out the extremely aggressive factions hurting thousands of planets and trillions of lives.  
  
The Blade of Marmora were few in number and very secretive—Hunk was pretty sure they _still_ hadn’t taught Keith the secret handshake or whatever, even after Keith’s temporary stint as Voltron leader and continual push to be good allies to each other. But one thing they did have in spades was intelligence, and a vast spy network. They could figure out where to strike and provide Voltron with all the information necessary to hit the Galra hard and fast, and the paladins could take advantage of it to finish a battle with as few casualties and general destruction as possible.  
  
But the Blade of Marmora also has access to other things besides troop movements and supply lines—namely, the Galra Empire’s little secrets that they’d rather were swept under the rug. And one of those little secrets was why they were here now.  
  
There weren’t any records of it in the Galra databases. It wasn’t something Zarkon or his subordinates had wanted on record. The Blade only knew of it because one of their operatives had been present for the initial investigation and had passed along the information in case it was useful. But it seemed an expedition had been sent to a newly discovered planet, to assess it for potential resources for the Galra empire—and nearly the entire crew had died. The three that returned had reportedly been overcome with madness, screaming and crying nonsense, unaware of where or when they were. Even when questioned under duress by the druids they had never been able to answer any substantial questions. They’d been executed for gross incompetence, and the entire thing had been deliberately buried to obliterate any trace of weakness.  
  
Not unusual, the Blade of Marmora had said. There were many weaknesses in the Galra Empire, but the moment they were discovered they were culled. That had been Zarkon’s way. What _was_ unusual, they said, was that no one had ever been sent back to the planet to complete the mission, and it had never been tagged as a potential resource.  
  
The Galra were actually afraid of someone or something there. And anything the Galra feared could be a potential ally or weapon of the Voltron Alliance, and the Blade of Marmora.  
  
And Hunk gets that, totally. Even if he’s not exactly thrilled about the prospect of going to a planet that even the _Galra_ are scared of, because what could possibly be bad enough to scare _those_ guys? But with all the hype about how dangerous this place is, he’d sort of been expecting something really cool and terrifying. Something with really pointy edges that looked like angry teeth, or lots of volcanos, or just something really _huge._  
  
But this planet is tiny. Barely the size of Kerberos—maybe even smaller. On Earth it might not even get classified as a ‘planet.’ And there’s nothing particularly impressive about it—it just looks like a giant chunk of rock. They’d known it was going to be a primarily earthen planet based on the Blade’s intelligence—that was why they’d taken the Yellow Lion—but the rest does not impress. There’s some darker patches that might be canyons or valleys, and when Hunk scans with his Lion’s sensors he can see there’s some man-made structures. Relatively speaking, anyway, since who knows who lives here, but probably not man. But no massive cannons or huge armies or anything else that screams ‘anti-Empire weapon.’ The air’s even breathable, and there’s no indication of toxicity.  
  
For a scary planet that somehow lead to the deaths of almost an entire crew of hardy Galra scientists and operatives, this is almost disappointing.  
  
“Let’s not underestimate it,” Keith says, staring at the planet. “Something about this place is dangerous. If we’re lucky, it’ll be citizens that fought against the Galra and won. Maybe we can prove we have a common enemy.”  
  
“Maybe we should keep Galra-Keith on the down low, then,” Hunk says teasingly. “Think you can pass for human?”  
  
Kieth grumbles under his breath, and gives Hunk a dirty look. Hunk smiles back at him, just to show he doesn’t really mean any harm by it. Teasing Keith is kind of fun sometimes—he can see why Lance gets a kick out of it—but Keith’s also gotten a lot better at dealing with it. Plus, as much as Keith complains, Hunk thinks that he secretly sort of appreciates somebody treating his heritage _without_ all the associated doom and gloom.  
  
“Just get us on the ground so we can start looking,” Keith finally says with a sigh. “And keep an eye out. Maybe we’ll find allies, but we might find enemies too. So be careful.”  
  
“Sure, sure. On it,” Hunk says, more serious now. He _does_ always get the worst missions, after all, usually to Galra-infested places. Maybe this one won’t be infested with Galra specifically, for obvious reasons, but it would be just his luck that it would still be occupied by _something._ He pushes the control levers forward, and the Yellow Lion soars lazily through space towards the hunk of rock in the distance.  
  
They drop into the planet’s atmosphere with no problems. Hunk waits nervously for some kind of anti-spacecraft missiles or lasers, or to be met with a fleet of fighter craft, but their entry is blissfully undisturbed. Even Keith seems perplexed by the lack of any kind of response to their arrival. They get close to the ground with no problems, and Hunk skims maybe five hundred feet or so above the surface, rushing over golden stone and wide rocky expanses without protest.  
  
“I’m not seeing any kind of weapons,” Hunk says finally.  
  
Keith frowns. “Me neither.”  
  
“So what do we do? Where do we go? This place looks like it’s all just wasteland and canyons.”  
  
“There were settlements, right?” Keith asks, looking around at the wide open stone surface. “We should try one of those. See if there are any people here to try and communicate with.”  
  
“I guess.” Hunk isn’t entirely sure how he feels about that. They’ve got about a fifty-fifty chance of meeting something really nasty and aggressive if they do that. If it’s not a weapon here that caused the Galra to die or go crazy, then it must be the people who fought back. Hunk isn’t keen on getting on their bad side.  
  
But they could also be friendly. Or at least willing to listen. They’ve made a lot of good friends where they hadn’t expected to find them, after all. Hunk had been terrified of Shay and her brother when they first arrived on the Balmera, but the Balmerans had turned out to be wonderful people. The Olkari had disabled their Lions and brought them down, but had turned out to be incredible allies. So maybe there’s a chance something good could come of it.  
  
Hunk sets the Yellow Lion’s sensors to scan for the areas of habitation. It looks like all the buildings here are made out of the same stone as the planet itself, and Yellow is especially gifted with the earth; it takes only a few seconds to identify a number of villages, always situated in the deepest canyons. The scan results output on one of the screens to his right, near Keith.  
  
“There.” Keith gestures at the largest point on the map. “That looks like the biggest settlement. It might be a city or something. Maybe we can find one of their leaders to speak to.”  
  
Hunk snickers despite himself. “Are you really going to ask them to take you to their leader? Way to be the most cliche alien on the planet, Keith.”  
  
“Hey!” Keith scowls. “You know, if you think about it, _you’d_ be an alien to these people too.”  
  
Hunk opens his mouth to respond, but then closes it again thoughtfully. Actually, that’s a good point. He’s always considered himself none-alien, but he’s all-alien to everyone else who’s not human, right?  
  
“Deep thoughts, Keith,” he says finally. “I didn’t know you were so philosophical.”  
  
Keith rolls his eyes. “Let’s just focus on the mission,” he says.  
  
Hunk guides the Yellow Lion to the settlement in question. It’s located in the deepest canyon he can measure with the Lion’s sensors on the planet. But when the Lion touches down and digs his claws into the earth for stability, Hunk is bewildered at what they find.  
  
“There’s nothing here,” Keith states, glancing around the Yellow Lion’s visual displays once more before giving Hunk a funny look. “This is the right place?”  
  
“Same coordinates.” Hunk stares at the canyon floor as well. It’s just rock and stone, with sheer cliff-faces on both sides of them. The canyon is wide enough to hold a small town at least, but there’s nothing here. He turns Yellow’s head to look around, and his eyes widen. “Wait, look!”  
  
In one of the cliff faces, there’s a door.  
  
Actually, calling it a ‘door’ is a bit of an understatement. It’s a huge archway, almost as high as his Lion’s shoulders. The arch has intricate carvings in some kind of geometric script that Hunk can’t make sense of, but it does look quite pretty. Other parts of the cliff face immediately surrounding the arch have been carved as well, until it almost looks like a building. The doors are wide open and lead to a darker interior, but something inside does seem to be faintly lit.  
  
“Oh, of _course_ ,” Hunk says, grinning as he comes to a sudden understanding. “There _is_ a settlement…underground. Yellow can sense it because he’s built for dealing with stone. We’d never see this from the air. Nice catch, buddy.” He pats the dashboard fondly, and feels the faint rumble of Yellow’s answer in his head.  
  
“Okay. So let’s go meet them.” Keith turns to head for the door.  
  
“Woah, wait! Just like that? Shouldn’t we try to contact them or something first, let them know we’re here?” Hunk asks nervously. He has no problem with caves and he’s not really claustrophobic; it’s the air that’s a problem, really. But he does take issue with walking into some kind of underground lair where people who killed more than half a Galra exploration team are located, on their own turf.  
  
“Have you picked up any hailing frequencies?” Keith asks, with a raised eyebrow. “You got any other way to contact them?”  
  
“Well…no…”  
  
“Then we’ll have to do it on foot. C’mon.”  
  
Hunk grumbles under his breath, but obligingly adjusts the Yellow Lion until he’s crouching, opening the jaw hatch to let them out. They both stride down the ramp into what looks like late-morning sun. It’s warm out here, not unlike the canyons where they first found the Blue Lion back on Earth, and the ground is already baking. As not on board as he is with going into the caverns, Hunk hopes they’ll at least be cooler in there.  
  
Keith looks around at their surroundings with a frown, and for a moment Hunk swears he’s trying to find something. “What’s wrong?” Hunk asks, a little nervously. Keith’s thing is ‘instinct,’ after all, and being Galra seems to let him be instinctive on a whole different level. Hunk noticed more than once when Keith was their leader that he sometimes seemed to have a sense of something brewing right before it did. If he’s uneasy, that’s not a good sign.  
  
But Keith squeezes his eyes shut after a second and shakes his head, like he’s getting himself back on track. “It’s nothing,” he says after a moment. “Nothing bad, anyway. I just…does it seem really quiet here to you? Like…almost too quiet. Unnaturally quiet.”  
  
Hunk stares at him for a moment. Actually it _is_ really quiet here, which Hunk himself is not the biggest fan of. This far down in the canyon it’s almost perfectly silent, without even the wind whispering through the rocks; the air is completely dead. There’s no movement or people or anything to make any kind of noise. It’s almost oppressive, to Hunk at least, who likes a lot of noise and movement and sense of life.  
  
It is kind of weird for Keith to point it out, though. Keith _likes_ quiet and stillness, and actively seeks it out on the ship sometimes when he needs some time to himself.  
  
“A little,” Hunk says after a moment. “Is that a problem?”  
  
“No,” Keith says. “No problem. Just…weird.” He shakes his head again, and then gestures for the massive archway. “C’mon. Let’s go see if the locals want anything to do with us.”  
  
Hunk follows, keeping his hand near his hip and the energy holster for his bayard. Keith also has one hand close to his own stored bayard, but he’s learned some restraint on his aggression during his temporary stint as leader, and hasn’t drawn it yet. They don’t want the locals to attack them because of a misunderstanding. Hunk doesn’t want to end up like those Galra explorers.  
  
Keith pauses at the edge of the doorway, just on the line of shadows cast from the inside. Hunk waits just behind him, and stares into the interior of the archway nervously. There are no guards, which seems odd. The faint lights coming from the inside appear to be from some kind of glowing mineral embedded in the rock, that illuminate the interior with a faint yellow light. It gives enough light to see by without being blinding. There’s a small chamber, and then what appears to be a tunnel descending farther into the stone farther back.  
  
“Hello?” Keith calls into the entrance. He takes a hesitant step in. “Is anyone here?”  
  
Hunk cups his hands around his mouth and hollers into the tunnel, “We come in peace! Take us to your leader!”  
  
Keith gives him a flat look over his shoulder. “Really? Who’s the walking cliche now?”  
  
“Hey, I’m just being a responsible visiting friendly alien,” Hunk tells him solemnly. “It’s my civic duty, and it should be yours too.”  
  
Keith rolls his eyes, but takes another few steps into the chamber. “Hello? We’re not going to hurt anyone. We just want to talk. We’re paladins of Voltron. Hello?”  
  
No one leaps out to attack them. Keith turns and gives Hunk a look, who shrugs. “Guess we’re going further in, then,” Keith says after a moment.  
  
“Maybe this is just like…the ‘welcome to Undergroundtown’ sign equivalent,” Hunk says thoughtfully, as he follows after Keith. “Maybe we’re totally welcome to just go right in.”  
  
“Maybe,” Keith agrees.  
  
They take the tunnel at the back of the entrance chamber. It’s clearly artificial, not natural like the Balmera caverns, but it’s well crafted and looks sturdy. When Hunk runs his hands over the stone it’s smooth and even, and little glowing specks of dust rub off onto his gloves when he touches the illuminating minerals. The tunnel turns in a slow spiral, descending farther underground. Hunk thinks it’s turning them to walk back underneath the actual canyon, where this settlement is presumably sprawled subterraneously.  
  
But it goes very, very deep, and they walk for at least five dobashes before the steep incline starts to level out again. And halfway down there’s a fizzling noise in Hunk’s ear, and then the comms, and some of the helmet’s visual features, go offline.  
  
“Uh-oh,” Hunk says, a little uneasily. “I just lost communications. You?”  
  
“Yes,” Keith says, and just like Hunk suspects, he only hears Keith out loud—not through the helmet. “What happened?”  
  
“Might be something in the stone here that interferes with the technology,” Hunk says. “Or maybe we’re just too deep for the transmissions to work properly.” He gives Keith an uneasy look. “Should we go back up?”  
  
“No point now,” Keith says. “We’re already down here. We shouldn’t split up, but we’re not expecting any communications from the Castle of Lions for several vargas, and we don’t need to call them.”  
  
Hunk hesitates, but nods. He has no intention of getting very far from Keith, though. The last thing he wants is to be in unknown, potentially enemy territory on his own with no way to call for help.  
  
They reach the end of the downward spiraling tunnel, and Hunk stops dead. It’s not out of fear—it’s out of surprise. Beside him, Keith also freezes, looking equally shocked.  
  
The city is in the middle of an absolutely massive cavern, at least a half a mile across, with dozens of other off-shooting tunnels Hunk can see in the walls. There’s a ceiling above them, but it’s so far distant it almost doesn’t feel like they’re underground at all. There are stone buildings here, but they’re built into massive stalactites and stalagmites, carved to have doors and windows and decorations along the walls. Walkways and stone bridges are everywhere, interconnecting everything in a massive system of footpaths on multiple levels. The glowing mineral is scattered everywhere, in several different colors, leaving the entire cavern comfortably lit. On some of the homes the minerals look like they’ve even been carved and placed in specific geometric patterns to create pretty little glowing shapes and symbols.  
  
It’s beautiful, at least to Hunk. It’s elegant in a way he’s never seen stone really used before.  
  
“Doesn’t look like anybody’s home,” Keith says, looking around.  
  
Which is also a valid point, because for all this place’s beauty, it’s also looking pretty empty. There’s no movement in the cavern at all—no one walking or playing or maintaining any of the buildings. It’s still oddly quiet, without any sounds of people talking or traveling, or the noises of a marketplace or public space.  
  
“This is weird, right?” Hunk asks, looking around. “This…this doesn’t make sense, right? There’s no weapon, there’s no people…what _happened_ to the Galra here if they didn’t get attacked or blasted out of the sky?”  
  
“Only one way to find out.” Keith steps forward into the massive city-chamber, heading for the nearest stalagmite house.  
  
“What, just dig through peoples’ homes?” Hunk doesn’t mind that, per se. He likes sharing, and learning about other people through their belongings and the things important to them, which isn’t all that weird. He’s less on board with getting shot by an angry alien coming home to find two other aliens digging through his things, though.  
  
“You said it yourself. There’s no people. Who’s going to get angry?” Keith gestures at the empty city. “If we meet somebody we can apologize and just say we were looking for someone. It’s not a lie.”  
  
Hunk glances around the silent cavern again, and shrugs, following after Keith.  
  
The first house is empty, and nobody comes back to it. It’s roomier than expected inside, and has a lot of different rooms, which they paw through with interest. Hunk finds all manner of interesting items, from clothing to books in an undecipherable language to what he thinks are toys, things that give an insight to the culture of whatever species lives here. Everything is very well preserved, and nothing is in disrepair or decay. It’s like the owner just walked out, and will be back any moment. The only thing Hunk _doesn’t_ find is anything remotely resembling technology, which is curious. Keith reports much the same, when they meet in the entrance room after splitting up to comb through the place. Lots of insights to how this particular family lives, but nothing to tell them what’s going on.  
  
So they move on to the next house, and the next, all to the same result. Lots of cultural knickknacks and cool things to play with and little insights to individuals, but nothing that actually fills them in on what’s going on here. The only thing that strikes Hunk as really odd is that each home seems perfectly preserved, and each one looks like the owners just went out for a midday stroll, and will be right back. Except for the part when nobody is out strolling.  
  
It makes Hunk a little uneasy.  
  
After a varga of exploratory breaking and entering, always staying within shouting distance, they finally meet up in one of the streets, next to a stone bridge leading up to a series of stalactite homes. “Okay,” Keith says with a sigh, rubbing his face, “going through the homes is getting us nowhere. It’s been one varga and we’ve got nothing to go on.”  
  
Hunk frowns. Keith looks a little tired, which is weird. They’ve only been digging through houses, and there hasn’t even been any strenuous heavy lifting. “You feeling okay?”  
  
“Sure. Why wouldn’t I?”  
  
Hunk shrugs. “It’s just…you’re looking kind of a little pale? And that’s neither of the colors you’re supposed to be.”  
  
Keith glares at him, and seems to regain some of his fiery energy. “For the _last time_ , my skin is _not_ supposed to be purple!”  
  
“Okay, okay!” Hunk says, grinning a little as he waves his hands placatingly. Keith still looks annoyed, but he’s also looking more animated again. Maybe Hunk had just been imagining things. The lighting down here is kind of wonky with all the weird glowing minerals. “You’re fine. I believe you.”  
  
Keith shakes his head, and finally says, “Okay, why don’t we try the center of this place instead? It looks like maybe there’s some sort of trade district or something. Maybe we can find more information on what happened in the public areas.”  
  
That sounds like as good a plan as any to Hunk, and they make their way to the center. This place is starting to feel a little eerie with how empty and creepily silent it is, and Hunk chatters to fill the silence almost without thinking. Normally he’d expect Keith to tell him to calm down and stop rambling after the first ten dobashes, but Keith doesn’t seem to mind the chatter for once, or maybe he’s just ignoring it. He’s pretty quiet, even for Keith.  
  
The trade district, as far as they can tell anyway, is a place of artfully carved and arranged stalagmites with a massive open space in the center. There’s stands and shops set up everywhere here, all still filled with what Hunk assumes is merchandise. They split up but stay within shouting distance to comb through the stands and stalagmite-shops to try and find anything useful. Hunk finds all manner of interesting things, toys and tools and jewelry and books and much more, but once again doesn’t find any real evidence as to what happened here. No shopkeeper seems to have left convenient anti-Galra weapons laying around, and although the silence and emptiness is eerie, none of the supplies or goods Hunk finds are actually disturbing in any way.  
  
They reconvene after another varga to trade information on their findings. Hunk notices immediately that Keith rubs his face a lot as he talks, and once pinches the bridge of his nose, pushing his helmet up enough to do so. “Okay, really man,” Hunk says, cutting him off in mid report, “is something wrong? You’re still pale, _and_ you keep doing that.”  
  
Keith drops his hand from his face and shakes his head. “Headache,” he admits after a moment, when Hunk crosses his arms and waits patiently. “It’s just been building since we got here, but it’s no big deal.”  
  
“There’s that stuff that’s kind of like ibuprofen in the Yellow Lion’s emergency kit,” Hunk offers. “We’d have to go back up and get it, but it might take the edge off.”  
  
But Keith shakes his head, and winces slightly when it clearly irritates his headache. “No. It’s not that bad. I can deal with it until we finish looking around. It’s a long way back up.”  
  
“It’s not too bad,” Hunk says. “We’ve been meandering a lot, but the tunnel up is really just right there.” He points towards the tunnel in question in the distance. “I don’t mind taking a break if you need it, man. None of this stuff is going anywhere.”  
  
But Keith shakes his head again, this time more insistently. “No. I just…want to get this over with. I don’t like this place. Something about it isn’t right. I don’t want to have to come back down to it.”  
  
He actually does look a little uneasy when he says it, and that makes Hunk a little uneasy too. Sure, this place is kind of creepy with the way it’s like some ancient preserved city with nothing in it, and sure, that’s a little unsettling. But that doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that would get under Keith’s skin like this. It’s more like he just doesn’t like this weird underground city at all, which Hunk finds odd. This place is really pretty once you get past how empty it is.  
  
Then again, Keith is an ace pilot, one of the best at the Garrison before he got thrown out. Flying is one of the things he does best. Maybe he’s just not at home being so far underground. Hunk can sort of relate, when the situation is flipped. He’s still not a huge fan of flying unless he’s in Yellow, but he actually really likes it down here.  
  
But he gets Keith wanting to just get it over with. “Okay,” Hunk says. “But remind me when we go back topside and I can get you some of that stuff before we leave.”  
  
“Sure,” Keith agrees. “Thanks, Hunk.”  
  
Hunk beams at him.  
  
The trading district seems useless, so they climb a few of the bridges to the stalactites to get a better lay of the land. There’s several very large stalactites hanging from the ceiling that look like important buildings that aren’t residential, so they head for those next, using the stone bridges to make their way there. Hunk finds the spindly but sturdy stone structures to be fascinating, and studies them with interest. But he also keeps an eye out on Keith, who’s started rubbing his face more often now that he’s not bothering to try and hide his discomfort. His headache must be getting worse, but he keeps pushing on gamely.  
  
The buildings appear to be something related to the government these people had, once they start exploring them. There’s plenty of recordings on a thin, paper-like substance stacked neatly in crates in a number of rooms. There’s probably plenty of useful information on them, maybe even something they could use, but neither Hunk nor Keith can read it. They can’t even scan the written words to bring back to Coran and Allura for possible translation, since a lot of the paladin armor’s other functions appear to have been knocked offline for whatever reason.  
  
_Probably the same reason we haven’t seen any computers or advanced technology here either_ , Hunk muses. _Something about this planet interferes with it. Maybe that’s what messed up the Galra?_ But that wouldn’t explain how most of them ended up dead, and the rest of them ended up insane.  
  
He turns to propose the idea to Keith anyway as they leave the buildings, but loses the thought when Keith sways a little uneasily as he reaches the first of the bridges. He recovers quickly, but it worries Hunk anyway. “Woah, careful there! You okay?”  
  
“Fine. Just got dizzy for a second.” Keith winces. At some point in the government building he’d removed his helmet and strapped it to his belt, and now he massages his temples for a moment.  
  
“Maybe from looking down?” Hunk offers, a little uneasily. They are pretty high up in the cavern right now, and looking over the edge of the bridges can be a little disorienting. Hunk can feel the first edges of air sickness himself if he looks too hard. “Maybe we should get back to the ground for a bit. And maybe you should take a break.”  
  
“No breaks,” Keith insists stubbornly. “Let’s just get this over with. But maybe getting off the bridges would be good.”  
  
Hunk frowns, but doesn’t argue. Instead he says, “Okay, over there then—that’s the last building that looks different than everything else. It’s all the way on the far side of the is cavern, but it’s the only structure that looks totally artificial. Means it’s got to be important right? If we don’t find anything in there, then I don’t think we’re finding anything at all.” _And then maybe we can go topside and get you some medication,_ he adds to himself privately.  
  
“Right. Sounds like a plan,” Keith agrees. “Good job, Hunk, let’s go.”  
  
They make their way to the final location, although it’s a bit of a hike. That’s partly because it’s so far away—on the very far side of the cavern, which is already huge, and because they need to wander around buildings and down stone pathways. But it’s also because Keith starts getting slower. It’s not immediately obvious, because Keith’s pushing himself so hard to keep up, but Hunk notes that for the guy who’s supposedly the most agile on the team, he’s definitely currently not. His steps are slower, and because Hunk is now watching him like a hawk, he notices they’re less even, too. He sways slightly sometimes, and although he corrects almost instantly, the lack of balance is definitely still there. He’s still dizzy, then, and it wasn’t just the walkways. Hunk wonders if he’s getting sick, and keeps an eye on him, just in case.  
  
But eventually they get to their destination. Up close, it’s actually really beautiful, clearly artificial but covered in spires that replicate the stalagmites all around them. The smooth stone walls are covered in artful designs using the glowing mineral in a variety of colors, and the end result looks a bit like some kind of brightly glowing mosaic. To Hunk, it sort of looks like images of whatever kind of people lived here, bowing on multi-jointed legs in reverence to some sort of swirling colorful lines beneath them.  
  
“Oh,” Hunk says after a moment. “This is some kind of…temple or something, I think. Something religious. Maybe it was really important to them?” Now that he thinks about it, some of the residential homes had had the same swirling colorful lines as a motif in one or more of the rooms. He’d assumed it was just some kind of design aesthetic, but maybe it was integral to whatever religion they favored?  
  
Keith makes a face at that. “Great. I wonder if we’ll even find anything useful in here.”  
  
“Well, if we don’t, then we can leave faster, right?” Hunk offers. Keith snorts, but doesn’t disagree.  
  
The archway into the building looks a bit like the one they’d first used to get down here, but with even more intricate designs. At their first step through, Keith winces, and wrinkles his nose. “Smells worse in here,” he mutters, almost too low to hear.  
  
Hunk gives him a confused look. “Smell? I don’t smell anything.” There’s the usual earthy scent you get in caves, of course, but it’s not any different in here than outside.  
  
“You don’t smell that?” Keith says, giving him a tired but incredulous look. “Smells like something rotting. This whole cave does.”  
  
Something about that makes Hunk very uneasy, but he’s not sure what, exactly. He definitely doesn’t smell anything rotting. “Must be your finely tuned Galra nose of yours,” Hunk says, with a forced smirk. He hopes that’s all it is.  
  
But Keith doesn’t react to the jab like he usually does. Instead he rubs his forehead again with a grimace. “Maybe,” he mutters. And then, almost too low to hear again, “S’too quiet here.”  
  
_Okay, he’s definitely sick if he’s bringing up the quiet thing again,_ Hunk thinks, now definitely concerned. _Let’s get this done as quick as possible so we can get him out of here and back on the Castle to rest, or something._  
  
Keith’s stumbling gets a little worse as they get into the temple proper. Hunk really hopes they can just do a quick glance around and get back out, but that’s when they find the first evidence of something significant since they’ve arrived: a slew of Galra equipment, set up in the middle of the massive temple’s worship hall.  
  
Hunk backpedals immediately and summons his bayard with a yelp of alarm. Next to him, Keith’s bayard also materializes as he forms it and holds it at the ready. They both look around for signs of the enemy, weapons raised, and Hunk can feel his heart hammering. But there’s no movement, and no sudden attacks. In fact, when Hunk looks around the interior again, he doesn’t even see any bodies.  
  
“Think we found out where that Galra expedition went,” Keith says next to him, after a moment. He lowers his sword, but doesn’t dematerialize it yet. Hunk doesn’t miss the way the sword trembles slightly in Keith’s shaking grip, and he knows it’s not from fright.  
  
“Looks like,” Hunk says slowly. “But what were they doing _here?”_  
  
“Who knows.” Keith presses a hand to his forehead again, wincing, before continuing. “We should investigate it, though. At least we can bring some information back. Maybe figure out why they left. Or what happened.”  
  
But when he takes a step forward he sways alarmingly. Hunk catches him under one arm, and hastily pushes him upright again. “Okay, we can do that, but how about _I_ do that, and you sit down for a minute,” Hunk says. “Seriously, man, you really don’t look good. I think you’re coming down with something.”  
  
“I’m fine,” Keith insists, but he sways again at the next step, and winces again.  
  
“Okay, but do you even know how to break down Galra tech and examine it?” Hunk asks reasonably.  
  
“I…you might need me to unlock things.”  
  
“If it’s got a bio-passcode I’ll call you,” Hunk says. “Please sit down until then? Just for a little bit.”  
  
Keith grimaces, but eventually does as asked. He doesn’t accept Hunk’s help for getting to one of the chairs strewn around the building, presumably for worshippers, because Keith is stubborn and doesn’t know when to quit. But he does sit, at least, finally dematerializing his bayard as he slumps wearily in the chair to rest.  
  
Hunk keeps one eye on him as he sheathes his own bayard and heads for the Galra equipment. A lot of it looks like surveying tech, with a variety of sensors and tools for examining the planet’s composition and layout. Other pieces look like mining equipment, for digging samples and burrowing deeper into the earth and stone. The Galra had definitely been here on an exploratory mission. Unfortunately, that’s all Hunk can deduce, as the rest of the tech just doesn’t work. It won’t even turn on, much less give him a chance to try and dig through records for clues.  
  
“Anything, Hunk?” Keith asks.  
  
“Nothing,” Hunk confirms, giving Keith a concerned look. The red paladin has his head in his hands, thumbs massaging his temples, and he’s very pale now. His nose is still wrinkled like he’s smelling something awful—even though it should theoretically have acclimated by now. Hunk hopes that’s the end of it—he really wants to get Keith topside and see if there’s anything in the first aid pack that might help him.  
  
“None of these things will turn on,” Hunk adds. “They’re in pretty good condition, but it’s like there’s just no power. Or like it’s been unplugged, or blocked, or something. Whatever they were trying to do, it definitely wasn’t going to work.”  
  
Keith grits his teeth, and pulls himself to his feet, the helmet on his belt clanking awkwardly against the chair as he does. “Alright. Let’s find out what they were up to.”  
  
“How?” Hunk asks. “It’s not like we can ask them, and their tech won’t turn on.”  
  
“We see what they were looking at,” Keith says, pointing to the far end of the temple.  
  
Hunk blinks as he follows Keith’s gesture. The very far wall has another glowing-mineral mosaic, this one the swirling color lines wrapping around people and…Hunk’s not really sure. Some of them appear to be bowing in supplication, and others look like they’re empowered somehow, glowing brightly themselves. A few look to be in pain, writhing in agony at the highest levels of the image. The mosaic centers around another massive archway, where the colored swirls seem to be emanating from in the imagery. It’s quite pretty, but Keith isn’t pointing at the mosaic so much as the cables snaking from the Galra equipment across the floor and down the hallway beyond that arch.  
  
Hunk has a sudden feeling of dread at the thought of going down there, and gives Keith an uneasy look. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” he says slowly. “Maybe we should really take a break. Head back up topside and call the others, tell them what we found. Shiro could—“  
  
“Shiro’s not here, and we are,” Keith says. “He’d just tell us to be careful but investigate it anyway. And I don’t want to come down here again.” He sounds agitated when he says it, and rubs at his eyes like they’re bothering him, massages his temples again. “Too quiet. S’not right down here.”  
  
Hunk doesn’t disagree. There’s a lot of weird stuff going on now, not the least of which is Keith’s reaction. “Okay,” he says, still uneasy, “How about you stay here and I’ll go check it out real quick then.” He _really_ doesn’t want to go anywhere alone here, not when their communications aren’t working, but he doesn’t want Keith overworking himself either. Not when he looks as awful as he does.  
  
But Keith won’t take that for an answer. “No way,” he says firmly, and for a moment he sounds just like himself. “You can’t go in there without backup. Not when we know there’s a Galra presence here. I’m coming with you.”  
  
There’s a joke in there somewhere about Keith being a Galra presence himself, but Keith looks so bad Hunk doesn’t have the heart to make it. Besides, Keith has a point. Hunk just wishes he didn’t. Something about that door really is alarming. Hunk has a feeling they might get some answers, but not the ones they want.  
  
So they go together, both with bayards out again. Keith’s is shaking so badly Hunk isn’t sure how he’ll use it, but he’s stubborn enough to hold on anyway. Hunk tries to unobtrusively sidle in front of him without making it look obvious that he’s trying to shield Keith. Keith can be stubborn about that sort of thing, but he’s definitely in no condition for a fight if they do find one.  
  
Keith doesn’t seem to notice, mostly because he’s preoccupied. As soon as they step into the new tunnel he visibly gags, and leans against the tunnel walls for a moment, looking ill.  
  
“Keith?” Hunk asks, worried.  
  
“Smells awful in here,” Keith says, hand clamped over his face. His words sound almost like a _whine_ , which sounds unnatural and strange coming from Keith. It sends alarm bells through Hunk’s mind, and even more when Keith squeezes his eyes shut for a moment and adds, “Why is it so _quiet_ here? It’s not right. It doesn’t sound _right._ ”  
  
“Keith, man, I really think we should leave,” Hunk says, worried. He still doesn’t smell anything, and okay, maybe it’s been quiet down here, but it shouldn’t be upsetting Keith this badly. Not when he likes quiet.  
  
“No. No, I…we’re almost there. Almost…just a little bit more.” Keith pushes himself upright from the tunnel wall and takes a shaky step forward. “Not coming back down here,” he insists.  
  
Hunk bites his lip, but Keith is clearly not going anywhere unless they finish this, or Hunk drags him out himself. The latter of which will not be easy if Keith doesn’t want to go, even if he’s weak. “Okay, okay. Let’s just finish this up quickly, then.”  
  
The tunnel is a short one, fortunately—more like a hallway, sloping ever downward, than a serious tunnel to somewhere new. At the very end is a small chamber with what looks like an ornamental table—some kind of altar, maybe—and a lot of containers and statues and another wall-wide mosaic with clear religious significance. The air almost seems to shiver here, and Hunk swears he can feel some kind of pressure against his mind and a tingling against his skin, although both sensations are faint. It makes him anxious, but not terribly so. Obviously this was a place of great religious importance to these people, once upon of time, and there’s definitely something powerful about this room.  
  
There are also bodies. Ten of them, all Galra from the looks of it. They’re scattered around the room, crumpled in heaps against the walls or spread out on the floor. Although they have to have died months ago, based on the Blade of Marmora’s intelligence, they look remarkably well preserved—like they’d only died mere seconds ago. There aren’t any significant wounds on any of their bodies to indicate death in combat, and only the barest traces of blood at all.  
  
Hunk backpedals in horror at the sight of it.  
  
“Okay,” he says shakily, “Okay, okay, no big deal or anything, it’s just ten Galra guys that all happen to be dead, of mysterious and unnatural circumstances that are definitely not from any kind of weapon or attack from these people that don’t exist, this is not _completely scary_ or anything but we definitely figured out what happened to these guys so I vote we leave _yesterday_ —“  
  
He can’t seem to wrench his eyes away from the bodies as he rambles, but he finally jerks his head away when he hears a soft whining noise next to him. It comes from deep in Keith’s throat and sounds small and pained, and that’s enough to break Hunk out of his panic to take a look.  
  
Keith is shaking badly now, and his eyes are wide and stare blankly at some point just over the altar. His breathing has become harsh and ragged, and he sways alarmingly in place. What _really_ frightens Hunk, though, is the trickle of blood coming out of Keith’s nose, and the way Keith doesn’t even seem to notice it.  
  
“Keith! Keith, hey, snap out of it,” Hunk says, now thoroughly alarmed. He drops his bayard, which dematerializes, and clasps the other paladin’s shoulders in his hands. “Hey, Keith, c’mon, man, you’re scaring me.”  
  
Keith blinks and sways again, but Hunk is able to hold him upright. “I…what?”  
  
“Keith, man, you’re bleeding.” Hunk gestures towards his own face, and Keith, looking bewildered, reaches up to wipe at his nose and stare at the red on his gloves in surprise.  
  
“I…I don’t…” He looks dazed, and gives Hunk a confused look.  
  
Hunk bites his lip again, and glances back at the Galra bodies. He’s alarmed to see the same trickles of blood coming out of their noses as well, dried now but still staining their faces. A few appeared to have bled from their ears, eyes or mouth as well. Hunk wipes at his own nose and stares at his glove, but there’s no blood there. In a way he’s relieved; he _hates_ blood. But this doesn’t make _sense_. If there’s some sort of environmental change that’s strong enough to kill people, it should be affecting all of them, but Hunk appears to be immune—  
  
And he feels ice in his heart as he realizes that there’s one very clear reason as to _why_ he’s immune when these guys had been killed and Keith was very sick. And he’s starting to realize that it was a terrible, _terrible_ idea to bring the one team member with Galra blood on a mission to find a weapon that could scare the Galra.  
  
Because if it wasn’t a weapon—if it was environmental or biological—then Keith would be just as susceptible to this anti-Galra environment as any of their enemies.  
  
“Okay, we’re leaving,” Hunk says firmly.  
  
“We can’t,” Keith argues, although he winces when he speaks, and he’s shaking so badly his voice trembles, too. Blood is trickling from his nose again. “Need to…need to find out what happened—“  
  
“Nope, we’re not staying around any longer,” Hunk decides, as he hikes one of Keith’s arms over his shoulders. He’s normally more than content to follow Shiro’s orders, or Keith’s, and take the backseat on missions. But he draws the line at following stupid orders when it puts one of his team members’ lives at risk, and he doesn’t care _how_ much Keith tries to fight him on this.  
  
But man, he _really_ wishes Shiro was here right now. Or at the very least that he could call him on the comms. Hunk’s bound and determined to leave, but he’s scared as hell now for Keith, and he could desperately use some reassurance right about now. Shiro would know exactly what to say and what to do to help Keith and get them out of here in one piece.  
  
But Shiro’s not here, and while Keith’s normally the backup, his decisions definitely aren’t reliable right now. So Hunk’s on his own, and suddenly in charge of this mission.  
  
Fortunately for himself and Keith, defending his friends is the one thing Hunk is _really_ good at.  
  
He helps Keith dematerialize his bayard and turn around to stumble back up the tunnel, turning their backs on that altar and the awful contents of the room. Keith moans at the movement, muttering again about how it’s too damn quiet. He only makes it about five steps before his whole body heaves, and he makes a gagging noise. Hunk is _well_ familiar with that sign, and barely manages to stop and help Keith lean over before there’s another awful gagging noise, and Keith vomits all over the floor and Hunk’s boots.  
  
He doesn’t stop for a couple minutes, heaving repeatedly. Hunk lowers him to his knees and helps him stay upright as best as he can, and wishes he could rub Keith’s back to try and ease the awful feeling of throwing up a little. He always likes that when _he’s_ heaving. The paladin armor doesn’t allow for much comfort, sadly, but Hunk at least holds Keith’s hair out of his face while he throws up.  
  
When he’s finally done Keith moans for a moment, and then rasps softly, “Sorry…”  
  
“Hey, don’t sweat it. It’s not the first time I’ve been thrown up on,” Hunk says, with forced cheer. “Feeling better?”  
  
“No,” Keith says, so softly Hunk barely hears it. “Too quiet. _Hurts._ In…inside.” He claws at his temples with one gloved hand. “S’ _pressing._ Hard. Don’t like it.”  
  
“Okay. Okay, you’re not doing so good, man, so let’s just get you out of here and topside, okay?” He slides Keith’s arm around his shoulders again and hefts him up carefully. Keith sags against him bonelessly, and barely has the coordination to move his legs, but he tries.  
  
“And maybe when we get topside Red’ll even be waiting for you, right?” Hunk continues. He’s aware he’s rambling, but he’s also aware that Keith is becoming very distressed by the _quiet_ , for some reason, so maybe it’ll help. “I mean, I’m surprised she’s not down here already, honestly. Doesn’t she always come out of nowhere to save you? Well, maybe she can’t get down through all the stonework, that’s kind of Yellow’s thing, but I’m sure we’d have felt an earthquake at least or something like that by now if she was trying to get down here and—“  
  
“Can’t feel her,” Keith interrupts. It sounds like a low, distressed whine, and Hunk can feel Keith trembling against him. Hunk cuts off in mid-ramble, alarmed, and Keith continues softly, agitated and confused. “I can’t—she’s not in my head, I…there’s no…I can’t _hear_ her, it’s too quiet, it’s too _quiet,_ it’s not right, she’s not _there_ —“  
  
Oh. _Oh._  
  
Alarmed, Hunk squeezes his own eyes shut and tries to reach out mentally for Yellow. He gets nothing. It’s like he hits a wall when he actively searches for his Lion; like Yellow is too far away, and he’s trying to shout across a massive chasm to his partner on the other side of the world. It’s frightening, when he really concentrates on it. Something about this place has a way of interfering with that connection, with that flow of energy or quintessence or whatever it is. Hunk hadn’t really been aware of it consciously since energy sensing has never really been his strong point. But he wonders now if that uncomfortable, eerie feeling he had while exploring is due to the creepiness of the place being empty, or at his unconscious disconnect with his Lion.  
  
It’s frightening, but it doesn’t really _hurt_ Hunk, not exactly. But Keith…Keith’s _always_ been incredibly sensitive to energy, even from the beginning. He’d known the Blue Lion was there and been drawn to the energy in the desert even without knowing what it was, back on Earth. He’d been able to sense other Lions, and pilot the Black Lion. He’d instinctively known the planets had died an extremely unnatural death when they hunted down the weblum. And he and Red are so in tune his Lion can find him almost anywhere. Which means whatever this place is doing with its energy, Keith is extra sensitive to it, and it’s affecting him strongly.  
  
And, Hunk can now conclude, that ability probably has not a little to do with his Galra blood.  
  
“Okay,” Hunk says, trying to go for reassuring and mostly just coming out as anxious. “Okay, it’s gonna be fine, Keith. Totally fine. Yellow’s still up top, so we’re just gonna get out of here, hop in Yellow, and fly right back to the Castle. Red’ll still be there and everything’s gonna be just fine. You’ll see.”  
  
“…not there…” Keith mutters under his breath, almost too low to hear. He doesn’t appear to have paid any attention to Hunk’s rambling.  
  
Hunk bites his lip, forces down his panic, and shifts to take more of Keith’s weight as they walk. He’s scared to death, but he doesn’t have time to be scared to death, not when Keith needs him. This is just like in battles when he’s completely in the zone and takes hits for his team, he tells himself. It doesn’t matter if he’s in Yellow or not.  
  
Keith is clearly trying his hardest to help with walking, but his coordination is rapidly taking a nosedive. By the time they get out of the little tunnel to the altar, and back to the main worshipping hall of this temple, his legs give out completely and he sags bonelessly. Hunk hastily lowers him to the ground again when Keith becomes little more than dead weight. The sudden movement doesn’t seem to sit well with Keith’s stomach, and he moans as his torso heaves and he starts throwing up again. Thankfully, he manages to not hit either of them this time. Small favors.  
  
Keith slumps tiredly when he’s finished, and Hunk loops an arm quickly around him before he can face-plant in his own mess. “You can’t go anywhere like this,” Hunk frets. “We need to get you out of here now and it’s gonna take you hours to walk like this. I’m gonna have to carry you, Keith.”  
  
“Get away from the smell,” is Keith’s answer. “The quiet. Too quiet. _It’s too quiet._ Why can’t I hear…where is…where are…” He groans, and reaches up with one of his hands to dig ineffectually at his temples, like he’s trying to claw out whatever pressure is hurting him there.  
  
“Okay, let’s not do that,” Hunk says hastily, pulling Keith’s hand away from his head. “We’re gonna go now, man. I’m carrying you. Just take it easy, okay?” It’s a bit difficult when Keith is so boneless, but he manages to sit him up long enough to drag Keith’s arms over his shoulders and haul him up into a piggyback. It’s probably a little uncomfortable with the jetpack on Hunk’s armor—paladin armor was just not meant for comfortable piggy-back rides—but Keith’s armor can take the pressure for that at least. Keith’s head flops against Hunk’s left shoulder, and his arms dangle loosely against Hunk’s chest plate.  
  
“We’re gonna get out of here, Keith,” Hunk promises, as he hauls himself to his feet and secures his arms under Keith’s legs for support. “Just hang on, man.”  
  
“—the pressure, so quiet—“ Keith mutters in his ear.  
  
Hunk sets his jaw, and heads for the door.  
  
He tries running, at first. He needs to get Keith out of here as fast as possible, the sooner the better. But it’s difficult to keep up the pace with Keith on his back. More importantly, the constant bouncing is hard on Keith, who groans in pain and writhes uncomfortably. After he nearly starts gagging again, Hunk slows to a fast walk, biting his lip. He needs to go fast, but Keith throwing up again is definitely going to slow them down, and making him worse isn’t going to help matters any.  
  
At least there’s no opposition. There’s no one to fight and no enemies blocking them, and Hunk knows exactly where he’s going. For once the exit is clear cut, and it’s just a matter of getting there. And that’s good, because he needs all the extra focus he can muster to devote to Keith, who is _really_ not doing well now.  
  
Hunk had hoped getting away from the temple might help restore some of Keith’s senses, but he’s rapidly realizing that’s not the case at all. Whatever had been in that room, whatever strange kind of power was there, Keith having direct contact with it made him slip downhill rapidly. He seems to be having trouble staying lucid, and his focus is almost non-existent, now.  
  
“So quiet,” he whispers in Hunk’s ear. His voice slurs, and he seems to have trouble coordinating his tongue enough to speak. “S’wrong. I can’t…where is she? Not…can’t feel…”  
  
“It’s okay, Keith,” Hunk says helplessly, as he fast-walks down another stone path. He wishes he could do more. “It’s gonna be fine. We’re gonna go right back to the Castle and the Red Lion and Shiro and everyone. It’s gonna be fine.”  
  
“Not here,” Keith murmurs. He doesn’t appear to have heard a word Hunk said. “S’dark. Quiet. Empty. No one… _s’wrong_ …”  
  
_Dark_ is not a good sign. Hunk can’t really see Keith’s head at this angle, but he really hopes blindness hasn’t been added to the list of weird things Keith’s dealing with. Then again, a few of his other senses are out of whack, so what’s to say his eyesight hasn’t been affected either?  
  
“It’s okay, Keith,” Hunk repeats helplessly. “It’s fine. You’re gonna be fine.”  
  
There’s silence for a short moment, enough for Hunk to make it down another street. He can see the spiral tunnel they took in the distance now. Almost out. Then Keith shifts just barely on his back, and says almost hesitantly, “H…hunk? Are…are you…”  
  
“I’m here,” Hunk says immediately, with an edge of relief. Keith is still sort of coherent, at least.  
  
Then his heart drops into his stomach a moment later when Keith asks weakly, “Is…is this real?”  
  
And Hunk doesn’t even know what to say to that. How do you answer that?  
  
His hesitation seems to be enough of an answer for Keith. He can feel Keith starting to shake on his back, trembling and weak, and his voice sounds small and broken when he speaks. “I…I can’t feel…Red or the…the other Lions…yours or, or _any_ of them…or…and…were they real? Were any of them real?”  
  
Hunk’s heart breaks for him as he listens, horrified. _The three Galra that escaped were mad,_ he remembers. He’s staring to understand what happened to them, too.  
  
“Everything f-feels so _wrong,_ ” Keith continues, rambling, weak, scared sounding. “So quiet, it hurts in my _head_ , I can’t…was _any_ of it real? Or am…am I still in the desert…and Shiro’s dead…and I…I don’t—“  
  
Hunk can’t stand any more of this. “No! No no no, none of that, it’s all real, I swear. Keith, it’s all _real._ I promise. You’re just a little sick right now, and this place is messing with your head really bad.”  
  
Keith is still shaking, and he twists in agitation. A small whining noise escapes his throat.  
  
“I swear it’s _all real,”_ Hunk says. “I promise. _All_ of it. We rescued Shiro and he’s still alive. We found Allura and Coran and we’re on a crazy space adventure. You pilot the Red Lion and she’s awesome and fierce and comes to rescue you whenever she can. We _all_ have Lions and my Yellow is waiting just above to take us home. You’re Galra but you’re not a jerk, you’re the best Galra. You’re not alone, you’ve got a family. Okay? It’s all real. I _promise_.”  
  
Keith shudders. After a moment he whispers, “Where _are_ they?”  
  
“I don’t know,” Hunk answers truthfully. “But I’m right here, and I’m not gonna leave you behind, and we’re getting out of here. Okay? Just hold on, Keith.”  
  
They reach the tunnel, and Hunk heads up the incline as fast as he can without running and making Keith feel even worse. He’s panting hard by now, but still tries to talk as much as he can, to fill at least some of the silence that’s upsetting Keith so badly. Maybe he can’t feel the Lions, but he can at least know he’s not _completely_ alone in the world right now if Hunk keeps talking to him.  
  
And halfway up, he hears something else that’s music to his hears: roaring.  
  
It’s Yellow’s roar, not Red’s. After a while of piloting Lions you start being able to tell them apart as individuals, down to their weirdly digital animal cries. Yellow is bellowing incessantly, and seems agitated. Hunk can feel faint trembles in the earth as they head up the tunnel, and wonders exactly what his Lion is up to.  
  
But more importantly, it gives him something to help Keith hang on. “Keith! Listen! Hear that?”  
  
“…quiet…” Keith mutters weakly into his ear.  
  
“No, no, _listen._ Listen close. Hear it?”  
  
Keith is silent for a moment, but then he stirs. “…s’roaring?” he offers tentatively, after a moment.  
  
“Yes. That’s it. That’s Yellow and he sounds _pissed,_ but he’s real. See? He’s _real._ Just like I promised. Okay? Hang on, Keith.”  
  
“…trying…” Keith says weakly. But his shaking does decrease marginally.  
  
It takes another five dobashes to get up the massive spiral tunnel to the surface again, but when Hunk finally steps into the hot open air, he’s relieved. They’re free. They’re _free._ Now they just need to get into the Lion and head home. Keith’s going to be okay. He hopes.  
  
The Yellow Lion is no longer over where Hunk originally left him. Now he’s crouched in front of the archway, massive claws on either side of Hunk, as close as he can possibly get to the entrance while being too large to actually fit inside. There are massive gouges in the stone where Yellow’s claws and clearly dug in deep, and huge chunks of stone torn out of either side of the arch, which probably explained the rumbling noise.  
  
Hunk’s not really sure what _that’s_ all about, although he suspects the Yellow Lion was worried. And with good reason. Even this close, he still can’t really get a solid mental connection with his Lion, and that’s scary. If he can’t feel Yellow, it stands to reason Yellow couldn’t feel him.  
  
“I’m okay, I’m okay!” he says hastily, as Yellow’s massive head lowers down to his approximate level. “We’re out and we’re leaving now.”  
  
Yellow gives a low growl of agreement, and stamps one big paw to make his feelings on the matter known.  
  
“Yeah, I know!” Hunk hollers up to the Lion, as the massive head drops to his level and the jaw hatch opens. He heads up it hastily and into the main cabin, and adjusts his balance as Yellow snaps his jaw shut and rises into a stand again.  
  
As soon as the Lion’s mouth is completely closed and they’re sealed safely inside the Lion, Hunk feels some of his unease lifting. He thinks it’s just his own nerves, until Keith lets out a soft sigh, and seems to go even more limp on his back.  
  
_Whatever’s going on, Yellow must be shielding us from it,_ Hunk realizes. Well, good. At least Keith won’t get worse…hopefully, anyway.  
  
He manages to slide Keith off his back, and carefully lays him down next to the pilot’s chair. Keith is completely limp, eyes half open. They don’t seem to see anything, even when Hunk waves his hands in front of Keith’s face, and Hunk bites back a groan at that. “How’re you doing, Keith?” he asks, as he hastily grabs the first aid kit.  
  
“…quiet…”  
  
“Yeah, Yellow stopped roaring since we’re in the cabin, now,” Hunk says, as he paws through the supplies. He’s not sure _what’s_ happening with Keith now, and he’s afraid to give him any of the medications in case it screws something up further. But he does pull out one the space blanket (still a funny name, even now), and unfolds it, tucking it over Keith to try and make him at least a little comfortable. He empties the rest of the bag’s contents back into the cabinet the bag was stored in, and tucks the bag itself under Keith’s head like a makeshift pillow. Not perfect, or even that comfortable, but at least it’s something.  
  
“Can’t feel him…” Keith murmurs. “Should be able to…” He gropes at the metal flooring like he’s trying to find something to hold on to, or find some connection to Yellow.  
  
Hunk’s heart breaks for him again, just a little. “Just hang on, man, we’re getting out of here right now,” he says, as he drops into the pilot’s chair and reaches out for the control levers. Assuming he _can_ fly them out, anyway. If his connection to Yellow has been messed up, there’s a high chance he won’t be able to pilot them out, either.  
  
But when his hands touch the controls he feels Yellow’s presence in his head again, and sighs in relief. It’s faint, like it’s struggling to get through some kind of wall or filter, but Yellow’s still _there._ He can sense the Lion’s concern for both himself and the red paladin. He gets flashes of Yellow’s frustration at knowing they were beneath the earth, but unable to reach them. He could dig through easily, he informs Hunk, but it would cause a cave-in on the structure below his paws, and he had been afraid of damaging the fragile pilots beneath several tons of rock.  
  
_Thanks for that,_ Hunk tells Yellow. _Now let’s get out of here. Nice and easy, Keith can’t take much of a beating right now._  
  
The Yellow Lion acknowledges, and crouches smoothly before leaping into the air. He’s careful, keeping his head steady, and the cabin isn’t shaken too much as they break the atmosphere.  
  
It isn’t until they break orbit that the communications come back online, but when they do Hunk hastily opens up a channel. “Hunk calling the Castle! Anyone there?”  
  
“Hunk!” Coran’s voice is frantic over the link. “Thank goodness. We’ve been trying to hail you! What is going on? What’s wrong?”  
  
“How do you know something’s wrong?” Hunk asks, and then shakes his head. “Wait. Nevermind. Tell me later. Keith’s in a bad way. We need a wormhole back like now. Yellow’s within piloting distance but we’re kind of on the slow side.”  
  
“A wormhole isn’t possible,” Coran answers regretfully. “Allura, Shiro and Pidge left on a diplomatic mission vargas ago, and Allura’s the only one who can activate the teladuv.”  
  
There’s a soft _click_ as others join the frequency, and seconds later Hunk is relieved to hear Shiro’s voice over the line. “We’ve finished our mission and we’re heading back now, but we may not make it before you, Hunk,” he says. “You’ll just have to fly with all the speed you can. You and Yellow can handle it.”  
  
“I…right,” Hunk says, swallowing. A quick glance down at Keith, still prone on the floor on the right side of his chair and muttering to himself about the silence, hardens his resolve. _C’mon, Yellow, I know we’re not built for speed, but let’s give it everything we’ve got. We’ve got people to protect._  
  
And Yellow rumbles in his brain in agreement, and pushes for just a little bit more.  
  
“While you’re moving, fill us in on what happened,” Shiro orders. “What’s wrong with Keith?”  
  
Hunk is relieved to be following orders again, and more than happy to let Shiro start calling the shots. He dutifully gives a rough outline of their little adventure and Keith’s symptoms, and adds, “That place did something weird to him. I’m not sure what, but whatever it is, I think it’s the same thing that happened to the Galra.”  
  
“We’ll worry about the what later,” Shiro says. “Let’s just get him back for now. Lance—will that help you on your end?”  
  
“If she _listens_ ,” Lance grouses, joining the communications with another little _click_. “Do you know how long me and Blue have been chasing this stupid cat?”  
  
“What’s going on?” Hunk asks, bewildered.  
  
“The Red Lion just took off on her own, after nearly bashing down the bay door,” Lance says in exasperation. “Only she doesn’t seem to know where the hell she’s going, so she’s just _going_. I’ve been chasing her in Blue for a while just so we don’t lose track. Won’t listen to a hailing frequency or anything.”  
  
“So _that’s_ how you knew something was wrong,” Hunk says. He glances down at Keith, who still isn’t wearing his helmet and wouldn’t have heard the communications. “She’s looking for you _right now_ , Keith. The Red Lion. She’s not gone, see? We’re heading home right now and you can see her again.”  
  
“If I can convince her to come back,” Lance mutters. “Hold on, swapping frequencies.” There’s another _click_ as he disappears from the line.  
  
Keith stirs at the words, and stares sightlessly in Hunk’s direction. “…Red?” he asks after a moment, confused. “Where is…so _quiet_ …I can’t…”  
  
“Just a little longer, Keith, just hang on a little longer, we’re almost there,” Hunk tells him. Keith’s nose is bleeding again, and he looks disoriented and uncomfortable. Hunk just hopes they can make it in time, and that Coran can do something about the effects.  
  
_The three that returned were mad,_ the Blade had said. The Galra had killed them for it. But they wouldn’t have tried to find any kind of cure. The paladins would never do that to one of their own. They _can_ find a cure.  
  
It’s a harrowing trip back to the Castle of Lions. Keith has a harder time focusing again, and keeps struggling to remember that the situation is real, that the Lions and Voltron and _everything_ is real. Hunk talks to Keith almost the entire time, trying to negate some of that silence, and keeps the rest of the team updated on their progress. Even Yellow tries to help—Hunk can very distantly feel Yellow trying to force some sort of connection with Keith, in response to Hunk’s own distress, just to be _some_ kind of presence in Keith’s head until they can get him fixed up. Hunk appreciates the attempt, although he’s not sure if it does any good. Keith doesn’t seem to calm any, and he still mutters to himself fretfully, or gets confused if Hunk can’t keep him on track.  
  
It’s scary, but at last he finally sees the white speck that is the Castle of Lions in the distance. Relief floods him, and gets even stronger when he sees the indicators on his displays showing the Black Lion approaching from the opposite direction.  
  
“We’re here, Keith,” Hunk says. “Everything’s gonna be okay now.”  
  
Keith only moans in response.  
  
Things move in a blur after that. Hunk lands Yellow in his hangar, and by the time he opens the jaw-hatch the others are already rushing up it to help. Shiro lifts Keith easily from the floor, and Hunk’s heart goes out to Keith a little at the red paladin’s dazed confusion over Shiro being _alive,_ because he’s having trouble remembering what’s real again. They head for the cryo-pods, and Coran has Keith in a prepared one immediately. Hunk feels relief at that, but it turns into confusion when Coran gestures at Hunk and points to the cryo-pod adjacent.  
  
“Me?” Hunk asks, bewildered. “But I’m fine. It didn’t do anything to me…”  
  
“You were affected too,” Coran says. There’s urgency in his voice. “I’ll explain after, but for now, the pods, please.”  
  
So Hunk gets in, baffled, and his eyes slide closed as the cryo-sleep washes over him. He wakes three vargas later, with everyone present again, this time including Lance. Keith is still in his pod, deeply asleep, but he looks much less pale than before.  
  
“Okay,” Hunk says, as he wearily steps out of the pod, and Lance helps him sit down on the steps. “Now somebody _please_ explain why that was necessary.”  
  
“We studied the data the Yellow Lion took, and compared them to your accounts,” Allura says. “It matched with what Coran and I guessed had happened. The planet you went to—its quintessence field was _extremely_ unstable.”  
  
“Quintessence field?” Hunk asks, bewildered.  
  
“Exactly. All planets generate an energy field,” Coran says, tugging at his mustache. “Some stronger than others. Altea had a very strong field, which is why our people can be so adept at magic and energy manipulation. But this planet’s energy field was _extremely_ unstable, from the sounds of it. And that room you visited, with the altar—it sounds as though it was situated directly on a ley-line for that quintessence field. The planet’s field itself would have been enough to start interfering with other quintessence functions, and even start causing physical ailments. But the closeness to the nexus of that field in that temple made its effects exponentially stronger.”  
  
“Keith is particularly sensitive to energy fluctuations,” Allura adds. “For that matter, so are many Galra, even if they can rarely do anything with the ability. It had an almost immediate effect on him.” She swipes a hand in the air, and a holoscreen appears, with a time-lapse image of Keith’s cryo-pod readouts. There’s a lot of healing activity going on in his brain and spine, Hunk realizes, with an odd twist in his stomach, and there's a second readout for quintessence flow that looks blocked and distorted. “It was almost immediately overwhelming, both from an quintessal and physical perspective. The pressure on his mind, body, and quintessence would have been immense…and permanent, if he hadn’t been brought back to be healed in time.”  
  
“But I was fine,” Hunk says, alarmed. “I barely felt anything!”  
  
“You were also affected, though,” Coran says. He brings up a second holoscreen, this time with Hunk’s own readouts. Hunk is shocked to see the first indications of damage in his own head and spine, now wiped smoothly away by the cryo-pod. His own quintessence is starting to look distorted as well in the earlier readouts, but flows smoothly again in his current ones. “Just not as strongly. I suspect if you had stayed there for days you’d be in the same situation. It appears humans aren’t quite as sensitive to quintessence fluctuations, though. In fact, I think it’s Keith’s human physiology that may have saved him here. The damage was already quite extreme…if he’d been a full-blooded Galra…”  
  
Hunk thinks of the dead Galra in that strange altar-room back on the planet, and shudders. “I’m really glad he’s part human, then,” he says shakily. Keith’s family, Galra blood or not—he doesn’t want to see any of his family die. Much less in such an unfair way.  
  
Shiro places a hand on Hunk’s shoulder, crouching down next to him on the steps. “He’ll be fine thanks to you,” he says. There’s control and calm to his voice, but Hunk thinks he detects a touch of gratefulness too. “You did a good job, Hunk.”  
  
Hunk feels his heart warm a little at that, and smiles.  
  
“Lance even got Red to come back,” Pidge adds brightly. “It took a little bit, but once she realized Keith was back at the Castle she came right back on her own. So once he wakes up, everything will be back to normal.”  
  
“Okay, and that’s great and all,” Lance says, waving a hand through the air, “But what about how this place was totally empty? Like they just walked away and didn’t come back? What _happened?_ ”  
  
“Unstable quintessence fields have been documented causing very strange things to happen,” Allura admits hesitantly. “There is no hard evidence, exactly, but there is no doubt that it affects probabilities and biologies in extremely strange and unpredictable ways. I could not say exactly what happened to those people, but I have a feeling it’s related to that in some way.”  
  
Pidge stares at Allura for a moment, and then looks back to Hunk and Lance. “What I’m hearing,” she says slowly, “Is that the two of you just went to the Bermuda Triangle of planets, and lived to tell the tale. Nice job.”  
  
“Bermuda Triangle?” Coran asks.  
  
Pidge launches into an explanation of the fabled stretch of sea and all the strange disappearances and events that have happened in it without reasonable explanation. Hunk listens with half an ear as he stares over at Keith’s cryo-pod, where Keith sleeps quietly within. He looks better than before, definitely. The others don’t seem worried. Hunk hopes he’ll be alright.  
  
But it isn’t until later that evening, when Keith finally stumbles out of his pod, that Hunk finally relaxes completely. Keith is disoriented, but it’s more from the confusion of waking from cryo-sleep than because something’s wrong with his head. The others surround him and welcome him back to wakefulness, and stay with him while he eats, filling him in on “Bermuda Planet” as Lance has now dubbed it. Keith normally isn’t one to be in the thick of the group, but he seems okay surrounded by everyone for once, almost like he’s content just know they’re there.  
  
And Hunk is happy enough to know Keith is just _okay_ , but he’s a little surprised when Keith catches him alone a few vargas later, after the initial ‘you’re okay welcome back’ gathering is over with. “Thanks,” he says, without preamble.  
  
Hunk blinks at him. “For what? Saving your life? You don’t have to thank me for that, that’s what we do. And I mean, I’m sure you’d do the same for me. Right? You would, right?”  
  
“Of course I would,” Keith says, in a _don’t be stupid_ sort of tone. “That’s not what I’m thanking you for.”  
  
“Okay. Then what?”  
  
Keith hesitates, and looks a little uncomfortable now, like he’s not sure how to put his thoughts into words. “For just…being there,” he says finally, staring at a point on the wall behind Hunk. “For talking to me when it was quiet and…reminding me everything was real, that I wasn’t…”  
  
“…alone?” Hunk finishes, when Keith trails off.  
  
“Yes,” Keith finally says after a moment.  
  
“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Hunk says, smiling a little. “You’re part of a team. Nobody’s alone here. I wasn’t going to let you think it for a second.” He impulsively reaches forward and wraps his arms around Keith in massive bear hug, lifting him off his feet. “I’m just so glad you’re okay! You had me really worried, you know!”  
  
Keith makes a startled choking noise, but can’t do much else with his arms pinned to his side. When Hunk sets him back down and releases him though, he offers a tentative smile. “Yeah. Well. Sorry I worried you. But still. Thanks for being there when it mattered.”  
  
“Any time,” Hunk says brightly. And he means it.

**Author's Note:**

> Anyone else adore that episode Hunk and Keith had together? I really wanted to explore that interaction more, so here we are!


End file.
